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Vigil for Michael Brown in Boulder draws more than 100 amid calls for action

By Joe Rubino, Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
08/25/2014 10:34:22 PM MDT

Updated:
08/26/2014 08:05:33 AM MDT

On the same day his family held his funeral in St. Louis, more than 100 people gathered on the University of Colorado's Boulder campus to remember slain African American teenager Michael Brown and call for justice in all "extrajudicial" killings of people of color.

The "Vigil for Justice," coinciding with the first day of the fall semester, was a reverent event during which participants lit candles and read an abbreviated list of the names of African American men and boys killed in what organizers referred to as an extrajudicial capacity since 2012.

The crowd, which grew to more than 120 people as the sun went down, started on CU's Farrand Field before moving to the fountains at the University Memorial Center.

Vincent Basile, a doctoral candidate in the university's school of education and a member of the Graduate Students of Color Collective, said it was important to provide a setting for CU's minority groups to come together and mourn.

"A lot of us are isolated on campus as people of color. We're alone in our departments or in small groups and at moments like this it's hard for us to find each other," said Basile, who brought his 8-year-old son Giovanni, adding he hopes for more such gatherings in the future.

"It is important to discuss this with them," he said, referring to his son and other young children in attendance. "This helps them understand."

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Clifford Bridges, a graduate student in the math department, also spoke to the importance of having a gathering place for minority groups on CU's overwhelmingly white campus.

"That a community exists here in Boulder that is willing to discuss and contemplate and mourn this is not common knowledge for everybody," Bridges said. "Just being able to find a community to share in this experience is my biggest take away from this."

Edwardo Martinez, left, Monica Gonzalez and Julia Jones listen to a speech during a candlelight vigil memorializing the death of Michael Brown on Monday. (Jeremy Papasso / Daily Camera)

Michael Brown, 18, was shot and killed by a white police officer on Aug. 9 in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri.

The African American teen was unarmed. Local police say there was an apparent struggle over officer Darren Wilson's gun before he hit Brown with multiple shots, but a friend who was with Brown at the time says the officer was the aggressor. The case is now in the hands of a grand jury.

Protests on the streets of Ferguson since the killing have drawn a heavy police presence and resulted in some clashes with authorities.

Though the vigil was solemn it was far from subdued with organizers and those brought in to speak focusing on a call to action in the fight against institutional racism and in efforts to prevent deaths like Brown's.

Michael Dominguez, a member of the Graduate Students of Colorado Collective and one of the event's chief organizers, said Americans, particularly white Americans, have become "professionals at forgetting" deaths like Brown's and racism behind them. He implored the crowd to push back against forgetting.

"I ask that as we move forward this year, on this first night of the semester, to act, to move forward with positive action, to keep ourselves together, to keep this community together and to build together, to not let this be forgotten, to not let this fade into the past, but to use this as a moment to push forward..." he said.

Groups that contributed to the event included Oyate, UMAS y MEXA de CU Boulder and CU Black Student Alliance.

Samantha Williams, with the Black Student Alliance, in her brief comments to the crowd said she did not need to list statistics or studies about the prevalence racial profiling or stereotyping because it would seem as though she was trying to prove something most gathered there already know is very real.

"I can't speak on everybody's behalf but when I see things tragically happen like what happened to Michael Brown... I see my little brother, I see my cousins, I see my best friends," she said, adding that she felt Brown was profiled because of something beyond his control: skin color. "You know what we can change is how this things happen and I just want to ask everybody to take a moment to think about what you can do to make sure that what happened to Trayvon (Martin) and what happened to Michael doesn't happen ever again."

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